|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Chapter Reference: Progress; Neocolonialism; Nationalism
Sparsely populated and suitable to many of the same crops grown in Europe, the fertile lands of the Southern Cone were a main target of colonization schemes in the mid 1800s. Both Brazil and Chile acquired German-speaking farming settlements in their southern territories, for example. English, Irish, and many others also arrived in small numbers. Then, between 1880 and 1930 Argentina, Uruguay, and Brazil underwent a major wave of European immigration that transformed their national populations. These immigrants were the precise counterparts of others lining up at Ellis Island in New York at the very same time. Many came from the same places as immigrants to the United States, especially Italy. Many were Jewish. Brazil experienced a new surge of immigrants from Portugal, while Argentina and Uruguay got a similar new surge of immigration from Spain. Student research and writing can explore immigration policy, the debates around it, the experiences of the immigrants, and their impact on the host societies.
Questions for Analysis and Further Reflection:
- What incentives led Europeans to emigrate to the Southern Cone in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries?
- How did the realities that immigrants faced differ from the hopes they had upon crossing the Atlantic, and from the ideas presented in recruitment schemes promoted by the Argentine, Brazilian, Chilean, or Uruguayan state?
- Immigration often sparks heated debate about what and who make up a nation. What are some of the main arguments advocates and opponents of immigration made in Southern Cone countries around the turn of the twentieth century? Compare these with the current discussions regarding Latin American immigration to the United States.
Bibliography: (Titles with ** are good starting places.)
Baily, Samuel L. Immigrants in the Lands of Promise: Italians in Buenos Aires and New
York City, 1870—1914. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1999.
Baily provides a readable comparative study of Italian immigration to the port cities of Buenos Aires and New York. Especially useful for students exploring the topic of European migration are the chapters on the motivations behind crossing the Atlantic and what immigrants found upon arrival to the New World.
**________, and Eduardo José Míguez, eds. Mass Migration to Modern Latin America.
Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 2003.
This collection of essays is a good starting place for students interested in learning more about immigrant experiences and the history of immigration to Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay. Useful comparisons are made with immigration in the U.S. during the same period, roughly from 1870 1950.
________, and Franco Ramella, eds. One Family, Two Worlds: An Italian Family's
Correspondence Across the Atlantic, 1901—1922. Translated by John Lenaghan. New
Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1988.
This edited volume of letters allows students to explore the experience of Italian immigrants in Buenos Aires through primary sources, many of which informed Baily's Immigrants in the Lands of Promise.
** Holloway, Thomas H. Immigrants on the Land: Coffee and Society in São Paulo,
1886—1934. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1980.
Holloway provides a readable history of coffee in Brazil, focusing on the colonization schemes that brought immigrants to work the land and highlighting the impacts coffee had on social relations and the Brazilian economy.
Lesser, Jeffrey. Welcoming the Undesirables: Brazil and the Jewish Question. Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1994.
Lesser's monograph explores the experiences of Jewish immigrants in Brazil during the first half of the twentieth century.
Moya, José C. Cousins and Strangers: Spanish Immigrants in Buenos Aires, 1850—1930.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998. 1998.
Cousins and Strangers is a detailed scholarly treatment of Spanish immigration to Argentina from the 1850s 1930s.
** Scobie, James R. Revolution on the Pampas: A Social History of Argentine Wheat,
1860—1910. Austin: Institute of Latin American Studies, University of Texas Press,
1964.
Though dated, Scobie's classic work on the transformation of the Pampas will introduce students to the role of immigrants in making Argentina a major exporter of agricultural products, in addition to animal products. Scobie also provides an overview of government strategies of recruitment and colonization schemes. This book is a good starting point for those interested in immigrants in Argentina.
Other Resources:
|
|
|
W. W. Norton | Credits | Site Feedback | Technical Support | Print This Page